How partnerships can help Africa achieve UN SDGs

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The exclusive publication on the seventh Sustainable Development Goal, entitled Goal 17 - Partnership: UNFPA's approach for transforming Africa and the world, will be published on 26 September in New York, during the 74^th session of the United Nations General Assembly, by the United Nations Population Fund regional office for West and Central Africa (UNFPA WCARO).

This publication responds to the desire to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by world leaders at the historic United Nations Summit in 2015, including Goal 17: “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development”.

The preface of the book is co-signed by President Mahamadou Issoufou of the Republic of Niger and the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed. They noted that the report highlights efforts by UNFPA and its many partners to implement SDG 17 in West and Central Africa.

“In a region facing profound political, environmental and other pressures, we can derive both lessons and hope from this volume’s insights and analysis. It is in the spirit of a shared commitment to the well-being of the region’s people that we commend this report to a wide audience in and beyond the continent,” Issoufou and Mohammed commented.

In 2015, the West and Central Africa regional office of UNFPA expanded partnerships at all levels, from community leaders to the largest UN agencies, Heads of State and Government, First Ladies, research institutions, civil society organisations and the private sector in Africa and internationally.

The Sustainable Development Goal number 17, to which this book is devoted, aims to highlight the importance of partnerships in providing a global response to development issues. This book is a true collective memory that aims to share with a wide audience the experience of the regional office for West and Central Africa in terms of partnership, and in particular the harnessing of the demographic dividend.

According to UNFPA Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Mabingue Ngom, who supervised the publication, “the publication is the fruit of a collective reflection that mobilised more than 50 collaborators in some 20 countries".

"The concept of partnership is presented in the first chapter, highlighting UNFPA's flagship projects, followed by a presentation on the key success factors that enable the organization, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary, to take stock of the progress made and the progress still to be made,” Mabingue remarked.

In the Afterword, signed by UNFPA’s Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem, she noted that the publication was finalised during the event ,25 Hours of Dakar” ,Senegal, where African youth had gathered to convey their message to world leaders ahead of the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, scheduled for Nairobi from 12 to 14 November 2019.

"The youth have expressed their vision of the Africa of tomorrow, the Africa of 2063… The Africa that these young people want; this new Africa that is within our reach, and without which we will not be able to achieve a better world, would only be an unfulfilled dream if we do not enter into partnerships.”

This publication will be useful to a variety of actors, whether they are concerned about accelerating the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) or moving towards achieving the SDGs in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
The book is now available on the websites of UNFPA WCARO and L’Harmattan Senegal.